Thursday, January 13, 2011

Prince of Power TPB

Hoo boy. The Incredible Hercules & Amadeus Cho roller coaster ride has been a great one. I love how seamlessly Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have integrated mythology and super-heroics. Honestly, these old mythological heroes are basically super-heroes anyway, but I'm thrilled at how well they mix. The coolest part may be how so many of their weaknesses are public knowledge to anyone with a library card. Check out how Hathor acts when Amadeus Cho slips her a roofie! I can only hope that after Chaos War wraps up that some of these characters might hang around for awhile.

Hercules is absent for this entire trade, as his "Prince of Power" moniker gets picked up by Cho (against Cho's wishes). But he looms large through the story as his closest friends talk about him and deal with his personal effects. I loved the funeral scene, with some of Herc's most famous paramours talking about his prowess. Having Northstar zip away is hilarious. I'm sure tons of people are going to be furious about that one. Even better, there is a short story with Namora and Venus from the Agents of Atlas traveling the country telling Hercules' many, many ladies about his passing. It seems Herc maintained apartments and homes all over the world, each with its own lady of the house. Herc takes pimping to a new level; I can't help but be impressed.

I'm thrilled that Vali Halfling and the Pantheon came up again too, although I would have loved to see more of their members taking on Herc's extended cast. I don't even remember them all, but I know that era of Hulk is my all-time favorite. Vali Halfling is a great villain too; the Marvel U can always use more super-genius villains. He makes a great arch-foe for Amadeus Cho too, we can only hope. I will admit to being surprised at how well Thor fits into this title. He sort of steps into Herc's role, and it works very well.

Reilly Brown's art is just tremendous. He's got a weird mix of classic comic and manga in his style, but it works perfectly. His sense of comedic timing works perfectly, but what I love is how well he executes action sequences. his take on Venus and Namora are tremendous.